Opalescent
by Jester ClownGirl
Summary: Opal's life was very boring. It was an endless cycle of the same thing, day after day. With her father elsewhere, and her brother off to travel Kanto, Opal decides to do something exciting with her life. So she exchanges her peaceful and extremely boring life in Saffron City for an busy but no-doubt exciting life in Team Rocket.
1. Chapter 1

It was a very hot day.

And it was on hot days, most people went down to the Beach or to the pool, to splash and swim in the gloriously cold water with their friends, families, and Pokémon, or they sat around at home, with the AC on full blast and trained on them, eating ice cream and flicking through TV channels trying to find something interesting.

Or, in the case of trainers out on the road, probably lounging in the shade of a tree while their Pokémon played or slept or trained, or swimming or playing in some river or lake or stream.

It was one of those hot days where no one wanted to really _do_ anything.

"Have a great day, sir..."

And apparently, that was _exactly_ what Opal's boss, the owner of the Saffron City Pokémart – also the _only_ Pokémart with a broken AC – wanted to do as well. Nothing.

As soon as the Pokémart's door slid shut behind a middle-aged man who'd been buying a _lot_ of ice cream, Opal dropped unceremoniously into the seat behind the counter, flopped forward onto the cool glass surface, and groaned.

"Damn it..." She growled to herself, "I could be lounging about at home with an AC that actually worked, eating ice cream and watching that special episode on the Unova Region that I recorded last night, or maybe down at the beach, but _no._ My boss _had_ to call me in today. _Had_ to take a day off so she could go down to the beach." She groaned again. "I bet Michael's having fun with his friend. His friend's got a pool at their place. Lucky little brats..." She felt a warm, furry body press against her arm, and turned her head to the Vulpix sitting on the counter next to her.

"But you don't mind this heat at all, do you, Pyre? Perfect weather for a fire type like you." She reached up and rubbed the Vulpix's head, grinning tiredly. Pyre gently nudged her hand, and then trotted off down the counter to sit at the edge and stare at the door while Opal remained slumped in her seat.

Opal groaned yet again, turning her head to press her forehead against the cool glass counter top, blinking down blearily at the rows of potions stored inside.

There was silence for a bit – a silence Opal desperately wished was being broken by the hum of the AC – and then, just when she thought she was going to fall asleep, Pyre began to growl. Opal was on her feet in an instant, plastering a fake smile on her face and reaching for a damp cloth she kept by the register to wipe the marks on the glass away, but stopped and frowned at the sight of a man in a Team Rocket Uniform standing in the doorway with an unconscious Rattata in his arms.

Members were not an uncommon sight in the Pokémart. They didn't cause much trouble usually; they just came, took what they wanted, and left. Opal's boss was _terrified_ of them, and had, on more than one occasion, told Opal not to bother them.

Of course, that had never stopped Opal before. She felt she had full rights to bother them if they got unruly – like the one that had come in and started knocking over shelves, scattering things on the floor and causing a lot of glass bottles to smash, breaking the windows, and generally trashing the store because he'd been frustrated about a screwed up mission.

It was that member that had broken the AC, and it was also _that_ member who promptly met the wrath of Click, Opal's Parasect.

Opal lifted an eyebrow at the Rocket Grunt in the doorway. He didn't look like the normal grunt that came in with their Pokémon out, demanding that nobody move, and then took what they wanted and left. This one only had the one Pokémon out, and it was unconscious. On top of that, the grunt looked panicked, his arm trembling as he cradled the Rattata and stared warily at Pyre.

Cautiously, she lifted a hand and placed it on Pyre's back, silencing the Vulpix immediately. The grunt relaxed ever-so-slightly, but he still looked scared.

"Something wrong?" she asked, leaning against the counter but keeping an eye on him. The grunt – who she realised was barely older than her – took a hesitant step forward, and then flinched when Pyre growled at him again.

"I...I need a revive..." he stammered. Opal let her other eyebrow rise to join the first. The grunt seemed utterly terrified of _her_, a _Pokémart _employee. She didn't even want to _know_ how'd managed to get into Team Rocket.

"A Pokémon centre would be better suited to healing your Pokémon than me." She stated, tapping Pyre's head to stop her growling.

The grunt paled, as if she'd just suggested that he hand himself in to the police. She rolled her eyes as the panic on his face grew, but reached into the counter to grab a small, yellow crystal from a box on display.

"I...I..." She watched his arms tighten slightly around the Rattata. The poor guy looked like he was going to pass out, he seemed that scared.

"Here." She tossed the revive in her hand to him. The grunt tried to catch the revive and not drop the Rattata but he failed spectacularly and the revive clattered to the ground while his grip remained careful but firm on the Rattata.

"Stop looking so scared. I'm not going to tell anyone that you were here. Hardly any point; this isn't the first time you Rockets have come to this store for something." Opal told him as he bent to pick up the revive. "I'm not gonna ask you to pay for that either; not much point." She turned away with the cloth she kept by the register in hand to wipe away the marks on the counter that she had left when she'd been resting her head on it.

She flicked a glance back as she heard a squeak, and briefly watched as the Rattata regained consciousness before returning her attention to what she was doing.

"Thanks..." she heard the grunt say, his voice no longer stammering now that his Rattata was conscious. She sighed; he was going to say more. She could tell.

"And I know you won't tell...because if you do, I'll make you regret it." There was confidence in his voice now; a confidence brought to him by his Pokémon. Opal would have been convinced that he could and would harm her, if the grunt hadn't been scared stiff and cradling an unconscious Pokémon only a moment ago.

"If I were you, I wouldn't be threatening me." Opal told him, turning back to the grunt.

"Why?" he acted as if she hadn't just helped him.

"One; there is a Vulpix sitting on the counter, just waiting for me to give the order to attack. Two; I also have a Parasect waiting in its Pokéball that would be quite happy to chase you from this store right now if I wanted it to," She grinned, "so don't threaten me." She replaced the cloth by the register, and then dropped into the chair behind the counter again.

As suddenly as it had come, the confidence was gone. She wasn't sure if he'd somehow managed to forget, or if he'd simply been ignoring the Vulpix watching him, but she didn't care. She waved her hand at him, indicating that he should leave, and then reached towards the phone.

The grunt recalled the Rattata into its Pokéball immediately, and fled the shop before she could even touch the phone. Opal's grin widened; on their own, they didn't seem to pose much of a threat, provided you had Pokémon with you. If there'd been more of them, she'd have recalled her Vulpix and waited patiently until they'd left before doing anything.

Leaning back in the chair, Opal sighed and looked over at Pyre.

"I think it's about time, Pyre." She said vaguely to the Vulpix, who simply tilted her head in response and then went back to staring out the window.

* * *

Opal knew that, when she got home from the Pokémart, she'd be on her own for a few hours before Michael got home, and it would be a few hours more before her father got home.

That was, _if_ he came home.

He said that he would be, but Opal had stopped expecting him home when he said he'd be home a long time ago. More often than not, he was sent off somewhere all of a sudden, and he wouldn't be able to make it home even when he'd promised he would. He'd always call and let her know as soon as he was able though.

She hoped he'd keep his promise this time though; she had something she wanted to talk to him about, and she'd prefer not to do it over the phone.

So, of course, when she reached the front door of her home after a ten minute walk from the Pokémart after she'd finally become fed up and decided to close for the day, there was no light in the house. She paused outside briefly, staring up at the dark windows of the house, before approaching the door and unlocking it.

But despite being dark, the house _wasn't_ empty. A brief, sleepy inspection, followed by a snort and a flick of tails from a Ninetales that had, at some point during the day, descended from the upstairs floor of the house and had draped himself on the living room couch was the only greeting she got. She lifted an eyebrow; the Ninetales was showing no signs of moving any time soon.

"Same to you, Blaze." She said to the Ninetales, who again flicked his tails at her and closed his eyes to go back to sleep again.

Opal frowned and sighed, staring at the Ninetales for a moment before allowing her eyes to wander across the living room as she shut the door behind her. There was silence in the house. Silence and darkness. Despite the Ninetales on the couch, and the two Pokémon in their Pokéballs on her belt, she felt alone.

She shook her head and flipped the light switch. Blaze snorted in annoyance at the light, and opened his eyes to shoot her a sleepy-eyed glare. Opal stuck her tongue out at him as she walked past the couch, heading to the kitchen.

She heard a yawn behind her, and then the soft thump of Blaze jumping off the couch to follow her. Opal rolled her eyes, and removed the Pokéballs on her belt to release Click and Pyre, since she knew that Blaze was expecting to be fed.

"I will always be amazed at how you can ignore me most of the time, but always know when I'm going to feed you." she said to the Ninetales.

Blaze, for his part, acted as if he hadn't heard, and simply sat on the tiled kitchen floor and waited, tails flicking gently.

"Fine; pretend I didn't speak." She pried a cupboard open and retrieved three bowls. "It's not like I care." She opened another cupboard and grabbed a box from it, which she then tipped over the bowls, pouring a generous amount of Pokémon Food into each one.

"Don't make a mess." She said as she placed two of the bowls down for Click and Pyre.

"Here, your _highness_." She placed the third bowl in front of the Ninetales, who was still apparently ignoring her. She didn't wait to see what Blaze did; she replaced the box in the cupboard she'd taken it from, and walked out of the kitchen.

As soon as she stepped out into the living room, she felt alone again. She frowned, flicking a glance back at the kitchen. The silence was pressing; she shifted slightly, uncomfortable in the silence of the house when she was used to hearing her brother's voice – at least – yelling from some room deeper in the house, and then crossed the living room and yanked the door open sharply.

Much to the surprise of the person standing on the other side, hand raised to knock. His eyes went wide, and he jumped back, stammering out something that sounded sort of like an apology. Opal stared for a moment before slowly raising an eyebrow; it was the Rocket Grunt from earlier.

"Can I help you?" she asked, leaning against the door frame. The day had proved to be a poor one. It had become increasingly irritating with every moment that had passed, and she was at the point where she wanted to go up to her room, crawl into her bed, and go to sleep so what remained of the day passed quicker and ended. The only thing keeping her from doing just that was the need to speak to her father.

"I...I..." his eyes widened as he stood at her. She let her other eyebrow rise as she stared back at him. He was inconspicuously dressed in blue jeans and a red t-shirt, so she almost didn't recognise him. _Almost._

"What do you want? _Why_ are you here? _How did you find me?_" The grunt tried to answer her questions as she asked them, but stumbled over his words and just ended up staring at her with his mouth hanging open.

"I...um..." he hesitated, his eyes sliding away from her. Opal frowned, tilting her head. Then she reached out and grabbed his arm, yanking him into the house and into the light.

He made a noise in surprise and protest as she dragged him over to the couch and shoved him down on it.

"Start talking." She ordered, throwing herself down in the armchair opposite. "And tell me your name." She added as an afterthought.

"I...My name is Luke Grey." He said, looking around the living room cautiously as he spoke. "One...one of the Agents asked me to come here and...and let the girl living here know that he wouldn't be back until tomorrow." He paused, looking at her warily.

Opal stared back at home for a moment, and then sighed, leaning back in her armchair to glare at the ceiling.

"Arceus damn it, dad." She grumbled. "One time. This one time, I _needed_ you to be home when you said you'd be." She tilted her head to look at Luke.

"Thank you for doing my dad a favour." She said. Luke went pale.

"You...Your _dad_?" He asked disbelievingly. "Your dad is part of _Team Rocket_?"

"Yup. My mother was too." Opal announced, grinning a little at Luke's expression. He looked like he was about to pass out – not that Opal blamed him. He probably wouldn't have tried to threaten her after getting her help at the Pokémart if he'd known that her father was part of Team Rocket.

"I...I..." He stammered, though that was as far as he got. No words would come out. Opal frowned as she looked at him.

"I'm curious. How _did_ you get into Team Rocket? You aren't like the normal grunts; they cause problems when they're around, while you seem to try and sink into the background." Opal commented, leaning forward in her seat.

"I...My...my friends made me join when they did." Luke admitted, looking away from her.

"I take it you didn't want to?" Opal inquired, watching him carefully.

Luke shook his head. "Not really..."

Opal shifted in her seat. "Not very good friends then, are they?" she asked.

Again, Luke shook his head. "They joined, and then promptly went off to the branch in the Sevii Islands without telling me."

"Ouch." Opal turned her head as a flicker of cream in the corner of her vision, and watched as Blaze came out of the kitchen, gave Luke a long, hard look, and then vanished silently through another door. She lifted an eyebrow after the Ninetales, but refrained from yelling a comment after him.

"I'm not sure if I should forgive you or not for trying to threaten me earlier today, but in any case, I'll let it slide. You're not like the normal grunts – but I think that's a good thing. Most would probably say you need to be more like them – violent and crude. I personally think most of them need to learn how to be subtle." Opal said, standing up. "Well, since dad's not gonna be home till tomorrow, I'm not gonna bother discussing it with him." she added in a lower voice.

"Discuss what?" Luke couldn't seem to resist asking, though it was obvious he knew it wasn't any of his business.

"I'm gonna join Team Rocket." Opal grinned.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a cold morning. Fog lay thickly over Celadon City. It was quiet and damp, with no signs of life, even a light in a window, visible through the fog.

Opal made her way down the street, pulling her coat tighter around herself. It was very early, and she knew that her destination, the Celadon Game Corner, wouldn't be open yet.

But it wasn't the main entrance, where the customers went in through, that she was aiming for. There was another entrance; a hidden one, as well as a third one opening up beyond the city. These she knew of because of combined chats with both her father – on multiple occasions – and Luke, who was currently trailing several feet behind her, tugging his own jacket tighter around himself, as if trying to cover up the already hidden red R on the front of the shirt he wore underneath.

Nearby, flitting in and out of the fog, Pyre and Luke's Rattata – whom he told her he'd nicknamed Ratta, though he never used the nickname when around other members of Team Rocket – were playing a chasing game. Every now and then, they'd suddenly run directly in front of her, almost tripping her up on more than one occasion.

Opal flicked a brief glance behind her, at Luke, who was watching Pyre and Ratta play with a small smile on his face, and then looked forward again. Her mind went to her brother, Michael, whom she had called the night before and told that if he wanted to, he could start his Pokémon journey and start challenging Gyms if he wanted to, much to his delight.

She wasn't particularly worried about her brother; he had four Pokémon of his own that would protect him. And he wasn't going alone, since his best friend – the same one he'd spent the day with before while Opal had been working in the Pokémart with the broken AC – would be going with him.

Sending her brother off on the journey he'd wanted to go on for two years had been the easiest course of action for Opal. She had no doubt that when – _when_, not _if_ – she joined Team Rocket that she'd be busy. Her father had attempted to intimidate her with stories of how much work was dumped on the new members, because other members didn't want to do it. Whenever her father had told her these stories, she'd cheerfully responded that if they tried, she'd set Pyre and Click on them, and they'd see to it that the fools who thought they could push _her_ around paid for it.

"We...we're almost there..." Luke's voice cut through the silence like a knife, and Opal jumped, jolting out of her thoughts, her hand instinctively going towards the Pokéballs on her belt. There were three on her belt today, as opposed to the two she'd been carrying the day before, because she'd decided to bring Blaze along as a precaution.

She looked back at him, and he stared at her, watching her hand hovering near the Pokéballs on her belt. She relaxed, moving her hand away from her belt, and looked around. Because of the fog, there wasn't much to see, but she _could_ see the outline of a building with a huge sign on the front nearby.

She pointed at the building, and looked back at Luke, who was still staring at her. For some strange reason, he looked terrified.

"There?" she asked.

He nodded, mouth opening and closing. She frowned; suddenly realising he was staring _past_ her, not at her. She turned, and then raised an eyebrow.

There was a green-haired man leaning against the wall by the door of the Game Corner. For a moment, she thought nothing about it – what was so wrong about a man standing by the door of the Game Corner? Was it so wrong to want to get in early (even if it _was_ a ridiculously early hour for someone to want to go in and play on the game machines) – but then she realised that there was a big red R on the front of the man's shirt.

She looked back at Luke, who was still staring at the man in obvious terror. Both Pyre and Ratta were sitting at his feet, staring at him, having noticed something was amiss.

For a moment, Opal looked at Luke, and then she turned her attention back to the green-haired man. He was watching them, his head tilted forwards and slightly to the side so that his face seemed shadowed, a small smirk on his face. He looked smugly amused. Opal felt a powerful urge to walk up to him and slap that look and that smirk off his face.

There was a brief silence, in which Opal's hand moved slowly towards the Pokéballs on her belt, and then the green-haired man lifted his head so the shadows on his face went away, and his smirk widened.

"What do you want?" It was a demand, instead of a question. Opal stared at him for a moment, and then gave a small smirk of her own.

"Depends. What do you _think_ I'm here for?" she asked, tilting her head to imitate the way he was still tilting his head.

"Don't know. It's too early for you to be here to play games inside; the Game Corner won't open for a couple more hours." The man seemed normal enough, but Opal remained cautious anyway. The way he was talking did not match the smirk on his face, nor the smug, amused, and _mocking_ look in his eyes.

"I'm not going to waste my money on those rigged machines. I have better things I could use my money on." Opal watched the smirk widen.

"I've never seen you around before, so I have to wonder how you know that." Opal's own smirk widened slightly, but she decided not to tell him that her father had told her once that almost all the machines were rigged. "Are you here to donate your Pokémon to Team Rocket?"

Opal immediately frowned at that. "I wouldn't give you my Pokémon, even if you killed me." Opal snapped. She ignored the noise that Luke made at that comment, all her attention focused on the green-haired man.

"We could test that, if you wanted." The green-haired man said. There was a brief flash of movement, and then there was a knife in his hand.

"No thanks." Opal flicked another glance back at Luke, who had gone _very _pale, and was clutching his jacket tightly around his chest, as if determined to not let the green-haired man know that he was a member of Team Rocket.

A flash of silver caught her attention, and when she looked back at the green-haired man, the knife had vanished back to where he kept it.

"A pity, but the offer will still be there should you ever want to take it up." Opal stared at him for a moment, and then turned away.

"I'll keep that in mind." She approached Luke and waved her hand in front of his face, drawing his attention away from the green-haired man. "Shall we go? I think I'd prefer to go in through the back way; the front entrance is too open for the public."

Luke stared at her blankly for a moment, mouth hanging open, and then he snapped his mouth shut and nodded, before starting slowly in the direction of the dark alley running behind the building.

"Are you intending on joining Team Rocket?" The green-haired man's voice came from directly behind her, and Opal jumped; she hadn't heard him move.

"Yes." She turned, taking a step back when she saw just how close the green-haired man was, and frowned, staring up at him.

"I see." Opal took another step back and a closer look at him. There was something off about him, and it didn't take her long to figure out what.

"Stop putting on an act. I don't like being lied to." She told him, glaring up at him.

Behind her, Luke let out a squeak and she heard footsteps retreating a little.

She started to turn to look at him, opening her mouth to ask him why he was so terrified, but stopped when she felt something cold and sharp press against her neck. Her frown deepened, but she wasn't particularly scared. She'd been threatened with knives before; one of the hazards of working at a Pokémart.

"You're good with knives." She commented, instead of doing what most girls in her position probably would have done; cry and beg for her life. She wasn't that type of girl.

"Aren't you scared?" the tone he'd had before – a _sort_ of polite tone – was gone, replaced by one that promised pain, bloodshed, and death should someone piss him off.

"Not particularly. Just cautious; knives are not something I _like_ having pressed against my throat." She began, staring at the Celadon Game Corner with a bored expression. "Besides, should you even _act_ like you're going to cut my throat, you'll have your ass literally _set on fire_ by the Vulpix standing right behind you." She pointed out.

There was a brief silence, and then the knife went away from her neck slowly. She heard Pyre growl, and then the Vulpix nudged against her legs.

"You're good." She heard him say. "I'll see you around." She saw Luke relax out of the corner of her eye, and turned to see that the green-haired man had vanished into the fog. She frowned; he could move so silently. It was a bit unnerving, but only a bit.

She let out a breath, and then turned to Luke.

"So, shall we go?"

* * *

Twenty minutes later found Opal straightening her new uniform shirt as she peered into the full length mirror on the wall. The shirt was slightly big on her, but that was because she'd purposely chosen a shirt a size bigger than she was so that it didn't cling to her. And the trousers she wore – which she'd grabbed after seeing how _short_ the skirts and shorts that came with the girls' uniform were – made her look taller than she was.

She flexed her fingers briefly, the gloves on her hands unfamiliar and a little strange, and then bent down to tug a pair of boots on her feet in place of the sneakers she'd been wearing before. It would take some time to get used to the uniform, she knew, but it would be worth it, in the end.

The curtain of the small dress room she was in twitched as Ratta and Pyre poked their heads in under it to peer at her. She blinked down at their curious faces, and then smiled. The two Pokémon blinked at her before vanishing again.

"You done in there?" a voice asked and Opal sighed, sweeping up her casual clothes and shoes, which lay abandoned on the dressing room floor, and threw the curtain aside.

Luke, who had been wandering about the room beyond, examining shelves of neatly folded uniforms and rows of shiny, new-looking Pokéballs containing the Pokémon issued to new members, turned to look at her. Opal pretended not to notice the way his eyes widened slightly as he stared at her.

Another grunt, one she hadn't bothered to ask the name of, was sitting in a chair by the wall with a clipboard on his knee. He looked between her and Luke with a raised eyebrow and a questioning look, and then shrugged, his face becoming a mask of indifference.

Opal said nothing as she stuffed her clothes into a shoulder bag she'd shoved into her jacket pocket before she'd left home. Luke, she noticed, hadn't seen the other grunt's questioning look. He was too busy trying to pry Ratta from his leg, because the little Rattata was trying to climb up his leg.

"I take that as a yes. Right." The grunt fished a pen from his pocket. "Name?"

"Opal Fate."

The grunt raised an eyebrow again as he wrote her name down. "You're Sid's daughter?"

"yup." She confirmed, nodding, watching Luke struggle to remove Ratta from his leg before she dug her sharp little claws into someplace he _didn't_ want her claws.

"Right." He quickly wrote something else down, and then looked at her again. "Age?"

"Twenty one."

"And where is your hometown?"

"On Mandarin Island South, in the Orange Archipelago."

"Right..." The grunt wrote a few things without asking any questions, and then stood up and placed the clipboard down on the chair. "I see that you already have Pokémon," Opal's hand instinctively went to the three Pokéballs attached to her belt. "However..." he approached the rows of shiny, new-looking Pokéballs that Luke had been examining. Luke moved out of the way, Ratta in his arms instead of attached to his leg, as the grunt began to sort carefully through the Pokéballs. "Would you prefer an Oddish, an Ekans, or a Rattata?"

Opal thought for a second, and then shook her head. "I'd rather have a Zubat. Or a Koffing." She told the grunt.

He paused in the middle of his digging, and looked at her.

"Really? Wow. You're probably the first girl who's actually said that to me. Most of them are disgusted at the thought of having a Koffing, and freak out about Zubats." He shifted through a couple more of the Pokéballs, and then pulled one out and held it out to her. "A Zubat it is, then." He said, as she took the Pokéball.

"Thank you." Opal said, attaching the shiny, new Pokéball to her belt, next to the scruffy, dull one that contained Blaze the Ninetales. She had to let him out soon; he tended to get impatient if he was in his Pokéball for too long, and often broke out without warning. She would have sent him with her brother, but she doubted that Blaze would actually _listen_ to him. As it was, he very rarely listened to her.

"That should be everything. Good luck; you're gonna need it." The grunt said, indicating in the direction of the door with one hand and waving with the other. Opal nodded, and started towards the door.

She had only just reached it when she heard the grunt say, "Oh right, I almost forgot," and then a plastic card with three digit number printed on it was pressed into her hand. "You might need that." And with that, she and Luke were pushed out the door, and it clicked shut behind them.

"Well, that was interesting," Opal said cheerfully, grinning. "Where to now?"


	3. Chapter 3

For Opal, the morning alone had been the most interesting one she'd ever had. For Luke, it appeared to have been the most confusing and terrifying he'd ever had.

Opal knew that everything she did was tempting fate to send trouble her way, but she didn't care. It wouldn't be the first time trouble found her.

Luke was showing her around. And by "showing her around", it meant that Opal was looking around, and Luke was following along behind, telling her what was behind that door, trying to get her to _not_ go down that corridor, or yelling at her from the top of a set of stairs that she wasn't supposed to go down to wherever they led.

She was walking down a corridor, with Luke following behind her and looking very weary though it was barely midday, when trouble found her. There were some people approaching from the other direction; a group of four that were talking amongst themselves. Opal paid them little attention; she was more interested in the screens showing different parts of the Rocket Base – including a couple that showed the Game Corner above – in the Security room, and taking mental note of the map pinned to one wall.

It was when Luke – who'd been plucking at the back of her shirt tentatively – suddenly sucked in a sharp breath that she started paying attention.

She stared at the approaching group with a raised eyebrow – vaguely noting that their uniforms were different from what everyone else she'd seen so far was wearing – and then closed the Security room with a loud slam that echoed around the corridor.

Five sets of eyes snapped to her; shocked and terrified (those eyes were Luke's), full of disdain (red eyes belonging to the red-haired woman of the group), cool and indifferent (teal eyes that belonged to a man with teal hair), amused (black eyes belonging to a purple-haired man), and smug (green eyes belonging to a familiar green-haired man).

"Opal..." Luke's voice was quiet and pleading, and he was tugging at her arm gently, silently begging her to not do anything stupid and leave before anything bad could happen.

Too late for that, though.

"I was wondering when I'd see you again." That smug expression seemed to be fixed to the green-haired man's face, and it made Opal want to punch him in the nose.

"Oh. It's _you_." She brushed Luke's hand away, ignoring his "please kill me now" expression, and folded her arms across her chest.

"You didn't take long, did you?"

"I had more of a challenge getting a part time job at the Saffron City Pokémart than I did signing up here."

"You don't seem too happy."

"I _was_, until _you_ came along."

"Ouch, that stings."

"_Please_, I'm sure you've had worse."

"Yes, that was hardly enough to break my cold, black heart."

"Huh, that's funny. I don't recall hearing a heartbeat when you had a knife pressed against my throat. Which reminds me..." She stormed up to the green-haired man, ignoring the looks she was getting, and delivered a sharp blow to his groin with her knee.

"If you _ever_ threaten me with a knife again, I'll do worse than kicking you there. I'll cut them off with a _rusty scalpel!_"

The green-haired man collapsed to his knees with a loud groan and a curse. Opal grinned, and then frowned and turned at a loud thud from behind.

Apparently, her latest action had been too much for poor Luke to handle. He'd passed out, and Ratta, who'd still been following them out of her Pokéball, was running around his head in quite a panic.

With a sigh, Opal made her way over to Luke, ignoring the green-haired man's grumbled curses and threats. She _did_ hear the purple-haired man snicker and say, "Oh, I _like_ her." as she waved Ratta away and lifted Luke up by the arms.

"No matter where I go, I'm always an Arceus-damned _babysitter_..." she grumbled as she started dragging Luke away.

* * *

"I'm going to kill that bitch..." Proton snarled, using the wall as support as he slowly got to his feet.

"You deserved it if you held a knife to her throat." Ariana replied, turning her head to look at him as a Rattata disappeared around the corner at the far end of the corridor after both the girl and its unconscious grunt of a master.

"She started it."

"She _finished_ it."

Proton glared at Ariana, who only smiled back. Petrel snickered again, watching as listening with amusement.

After a few moments, Ariana got bored of watching Proton glare at her, and stopped him by grabbing the front of his hat and yanking it down over his eyes. Then she turned to Archer, who had done nothing but stand and watch everything silently.

"You're very quiet, Archer. Nothing to say about this?" Ariana asked, smiling at him.

Archer turned his head to look at Ariana. "Hardly," he finally said, "it's not my concern."

Ariana nodded in acknowledgement. "That's true." She reached for the security room door.

As soon as she touched the door, it let out a loud groan and fell away from her outstretched hand, landing on the floor of the security room with a crash that rattled the screens inside.

"What. The. _Fuck_." Proton said, as the four of them stared at the fallen door in surprise.

* * *

It took Opal around half an hour to find her way to the infirmary. It was very quiet and very empty in the base. She saw only a few people about and hardly anyone worth thinking twice about. No one stopped her, even though she was dragging an unconscious person around. One questioning look was all she got.

After leaving Luke in the infirmary – and staring suspiciously at the Scientist-Doctor-Guy in charge for several moments – Opal resumed her wandering around the base on her own.

Everything looked similar; all metal and doors – many with key card systems on them, though there were a few with proper locks requiring keys – all marked with something, like "Storage", "Filing", "Conference", "Security", or "Computer". She found a few doors marked "Laboratory", and behind all the unlocked ones, she found herself staring down a set of staring leading down into suspicious darkness.

She peeked into several rooms on her wander, but found little of interest. One room marked "Computer" had several grunts in it, all of them staring into computer screens and clicking away with the mouse or typing away at the keyboard. At first glance, they all appeared to be working on something important, but when Opal took a closer look as she stepped in and walked about the room, with none of them paying her any attention, she found that they were all just slacking off and playing games, and wandered out again.

At some point during her wander, she ended up in a hall with a door leaning against the wall, the hinges broken, and she frowned as she stared at it.

"Oops..." She mumbled, shoving her hands into her pockets as she realised where she was.

"Care to explain why we now have a broken door in the base?" Opal jumped in surprise; she hadn't heard anyone approach.

"Umm...Rusty hinges, maybe?" she suggested, not turning around.

"The hinges weren't rusty. They were snapped clean off." Whoever it was standing behind her sounded calm and serious.

"I don't know, then."

"You don't? Then why did you say 'Oops' when you saw the door?"

"I hadn't realised that the door was broken when I slammed it earlier."

"Hmm. The door wasn't broken, though."

"How do you know that?"

There was a silence behind her. She turned, her hair briefly getting into her face. The person she'd been talking to – the teal-haired man from before – did not move.

"Do you _really _think that I would be strong enough to snap a door off its hinges?"

"Looks can be deceiving."

"Can you prove it? Can you prove that the door snapping off its hinges was my fault? Not to say that it is, of course."

The teal-haired man smirked, and Opal resisted the urge to glare. She didn't know who the teal-haired man was, but for some reason, she was getting the feeling that he was an important person; a feeling she hadn't gotten the last time she'd seen him, because she barely been paying attention to anyone except for the green-haired man, whom she had gotten suddenly decided upon revenge on for holding a knife to her throat in the early morning.

"You're a brave one. I can see why Proton didn't kill you. At least, not yet." The teal-haired man commented.

"Proton? Is that the guy I kneed in the groin?" Curiosity got the better of her, and she asked before she could stop herself.

"And threatened to emasculate, yes."

"In my defence, he started it. I was simply finishing it."

"I see."

Opal watched him for a moment, and then turned on her heel and walked away. She was aware of the teal-haired man's eyes watching her away she walked away, and his comment of, "brave indeed", but she ignored the feeling of his eyes on her, and pretended not to hear what he'd said.

_I wonder if you do see. People tend to be blind._


	4. Chapter 4

_One Month Later_

"…Hey, Opal?"

"Yes, Luke?"

"Where…Where are we?"

"…I don't know…"

Opal looked up from the map she was trying – and failing – to read, to see Luke staring at her in shock; eyes wide and mouth hanging open. Ratta – who was sitting in her special spot on his shoulder – was also staring at her, though she doubted that the little Pokémon was shocked like her Trainer was.

What had started off as a simple mission – to go to Vermilion City and collect something that had arrived by ship – had gone wrong. They'd been perfectly fine – sticking to the path, heading straight to Vermilion City – until a group of angry Mankey had suddenly attacked them and took off with the papers they needed to collect the shipment.

That had led to a chase through the forest until they'd retrieved the stolen papers.

And only once they'd recovered them had they realised that they were completely lost.

They were on the third day of their trek through the forest, searching for a way out, and Opal was going to scream if she didn't see civilisation soon.

"Useless map." Opal threw the map aside and ignored Luke's scramble to get it. "Remind me to strangle Proton when we get back."

"Please tell me you aren't serious…" Opal pretended not to hear him as she threw herself down onto a boulder that was surrounded by long grass. She let out a groan as she slumped forward and buried her face in her hands. She hoped that she wasn't sitting on a sleeping rock type Pokémon. That would _not_ improve her mood.

"The bastard said that this was an _easy_ mission. I should have _known_ that there was going to be complications. I didn't expect _this_ – I was expecting them in Vermilion City – but I should have expected _something_." Opal grumbled. "I _better_ be getting paid for this…" She heard paper rustle as Luke made his attempt to read the map, and judging from his frustrated noises, he was having about as much success as she'd had.

"Opal, what do we do now?" Luke finally asked, and Opal unburied her face from her hands to look at him as he cast the map aside with a sigh.

"I say, we walk." She stated, getting to her feet. Luke stared at her for a moment, mouth hanging open yet again.

"We…walk?" he repeated, his voice disbelieving.

"Do you have a better idea?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

He pointed to her feet, where a small bag sat in grass, its top open, revealing the contents. "Have you…have you tried phoning for help?" he asked, referring to the phone visible on top of everything else in the open bag.

Opal looked down at the bag, and then sighed. "I tried," she said, "but there isn't any reception out here. The trees are too thick." Luke frowned, and then sighed as well.

"Let's get moving, shall we?" Opal suggested, scooping up the bag with another sigh.

For a moment, Luke looked downcast, and then he nodded and followed after Opal as she started off in a random direction that she hoped would take them to civilisation.

* * *

"You weren't serious, were you?" Luke suddenly asked about an hour later, as he clambered over a fallen tree.

"About what?" Opal asked, jumping off a small boulder near the tree into the grass. She was frowning in annoyance; the constant green of the forest was irritating her.

"About reminding you to strangle Executive Proton…" Luke replied, jumping down onto the boulder and then onto the ground after her.

"Oh, _no_. I'm not going to strangle him." She gave Luke a savage grin. "I'm going to _castrate _him." the laugh she let out was decidedly mad – she was sick of the forest and she wanted _out_ – and Luke took a slow, wary step back, hesitant to make any sudden movements that might set her off.

Right as Opal was about to say something more, a loud shriek cut through the forest's eerie silence. She jolted in surprise, spinning on her heel to face in the direction the noise had come from. There were several loud thuds and crashes, and a couple more shrieks, and then the bushes began to rustle.

Then a girl with dark blue hair came barrelling out of the bushes, looking terrified. She shot past them with a scream, and opal turned quickly again just in time to watch her vanish into the bushes again.

Opal opened her mouth to say something, but was sent flying forward as something crashed into the back of her head, knocking her face first into the grass.

Luke let out a yelp, and she heard him fall into the grass next to her. There were several loud howling sounds and then all the noise faded into the background.

"_What_ in the name of _Arceus_ was _that_?!" Opal shouted, sitting up and rubbing her head. Her fingers found a small lump and she winced.

"P-Primeapes!" Luke gasped, not even bothering to remove his face from the grass as he spoke. Opal stared at him for a moment, and then stood up, grabbing the back of his shirt in as she did so and dragging him to his feet.

"Come on." She said, dragging him along by the back of his shirt.

"Where are we going?!" Luke yelped as Opal dragged him backwards through bushes and undergrowth. A Caterpie dropped onto his head and crawled down into his arms. He quickly placed it on a low tree branch as he was dragged passed one.

"After that girl." Opal stated, tugging Luke around and grabbing his arm instead.

"But…the Primeapes!" Luke protested, trying to pull his arm free. Opal only tightened her grip, refusing to let go.

"There are worse things than Primeapes." Opal stated. Luke looked mildly freaked out.

_Then again, Luke always looks 'mildly' freaked out._ Opal thought with a frown.

"But…but…" Luke sounded like he was going to pass out.

_Forget 'mildly'._

"Blaze will take care of them. He'll do anything for a fight, even if he doesn't listen to me."

"A _fire_ Pokémon? _In a forest?!_"

"Oh. Right. Click will take care of them, then."

"Click?"

"My Parasect."

"Oh…"

Another high pitch scream echoed from up ahead, and Opal began to move faster. Luke stumbled and tripped behind her, to the point where she was tempted to let go in order to move faster.

But, knowing her luck, she wouldn't be able to find him again if she did, so she held on to his arm and kept pulling.

"Go away, go away, go away! leave me along, you Arceus-damned monkeys!" a voice shouted, sounding annoyed and terrified. Opal shoved her way through some bushes, and frowned at the sight of the girl balanced on a low branch of a tree with the Primeapes jumping about below her, looked extremely pissed.

"Primeapes…" Luke mumbled, his voice faint, and Opal released his arm with a sigh.

"Jeez. Just stay here." She said, shoving her way through the bushes and yanking Click's Pokéball from her belt.

The Primeapes stopped jumping around at the base of the tree, and turned to glare at her. Opal hesitated for a second, and then took another step forward.

Angry, the Primeapes charged for Opal, apparently forgetting about the girl perched on a low branch in the tree.

"Click," Opal started, "use Stun Spore." She tossed the Pokéball into the air, and it popped open, releasing the Parasect is a flash of bright light.

The Primeapes thought nothing of the Pokémon opposing them until orange clouds of spores rose into the air all around them. Opal kept her mouth closed and nose covered, calmly watching the spores float through the air.

When the spores had cleared and all the Primeapes were paralyzed, Opal thanked Click, recalled her and reattached the Pokéball to her belt.

"I. Hate. Primeapes." The girl in the tree stated, sliding out of the tree slowly, glaring suspiciously at the twitching Primeapes on the ground nearby.

"I've seen worse Pokémon than Primeapes. But they are still scary…" Opal turned her head to look back at Luke, who'd left the safety of the bushes now that the Primeapes had been dealt with.

"Are you just gonna hover there, Luke, or are you gonna come over here?" Opal demanded, just as one of the Primeapes gave a twitch.

Luke jumped, backed up a step, and shook his head rapidly. "I'll stay over here." He replied quickly, his eyes on the Primeapes.

"Suit yourself." Opal said, peering down at a Primeape. It glared back at her, but could do nothing because it was paralyzed. "But it's not like they can do anything; they can't move right now."

"Thank Arceus for that." The dark blue haired girl stated, drawing Opal's attention to her once again as she approached.

"I have to ask; what, in the name of Arceus, did you do to piss off a bunch of Primeapes?" Opal demanded. The girl grinned, sheepishly for a moment, and then cheekily.

"Literally dropped in on their…fights?" She responded, linking her fingers behind her head in a nonchalant position.

"Perhaps I _shouldn't_ have helped you…" Opal deadpanned. The girl's grin faltered, but quickly returned to normal.

"Eh. You did, and that's all that matters. What's done is done, what's said is said, etcetera, etcetera." She offered out a hand. "Knight Phantom." She introduced herself.

Opal paused, and then took the offered hand. "Opal Fate. And that," she indicated over her shoulder, "is Luke Grey."

"Good to meet you." Knight grinned. "Now, I have a question; do you know the way to Celadon City?"

Opal frowned, and then shook her head. "Nope, sorry. We're lost. We're trying to find Vermillion City."

"Pity." Knight said, turning away with a frown.

"Is there something of interest to you in Celadon City?" Luke called from where he still stood by the bushes, ready to run should he need to.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Knight said. "I'm from the Sevii Islands. There's been a fair few Team Rocket Members roaming about lately." Opal frowned, her hand moving towards the Pokéballs on her belt.

Knight didn't notice. "I was actually looking to join up; there's never been much to do on the Sevii Islands, and Team Rocket seems like fun. One of the members I…um…_asked_…said that Celadon City's got the base closest to Vermillion City, where the boat for the Sevii Islands arrives at. I want to find it and join up." Knight's grin widened. "You two are wearing the uniforms; I thought you might know."

"We do." Opal said. "We're trying to get to Vermillion City, and then we're going back."

"I'll follow you then."

"Just try _not_ to piss off any more Primeapes, then."

* * *

"Haven't we already been through here?"

"I don't know; everything looks the _same_."

"Opal…please calm down…"

Opal shot a glare over her shoulder at her two companions she wasn't sure she wanted to have anymore.

Luke quickly looked away from her glare, but Knight simply grinned back, undisturbed. She didn't seem to mind being annoying.

Opal frowned at her and turned away again, ducking under a branch just in time. Ahead of her, a Zubat glided through the air, shooting Supersonics ahead of it to avoid branches, bushes, and the occasional Pokémon.

They'd been walking, once again, for an hour or so. Opal had decided to let her Team Rocket Issued Pokémon, a Zubat she'd nicknamed Fangs after he'd attempted to bite her opponent – a Rocket Grunt she'd been training with – instead of the Pokémon said grunt had sent out. She'd figured Fangs might want to stretch his wings, and might be able to warn them should something attack.

"Go, Pika!" The voice was a surprise to them all, and the three of them jolted to a stop.

"Use thunderbolt on that Zubat, Pika!" A bolt of electricity shot out from the bushes, and Opal barely had time to shout at Fangs to dodge.

The Zubat moved too slowly, however, and the bolt hit. Fangs let out a cry as it was zapped, and dropped to the ground.

"Yes! Nice shot, Pika! Now, let's go catch it!" A boy with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes jumped out from the bushes with a Pikachu, and Opal, previously shocked at the sudden, unprovoked attack on Fangs, was instantly frowning.

"Pokéball, g–"

"Michael!"

The boy gave a yelp at the stern sound of Opal's voice. The Pokéball dropped from his hand as he spun to face them.

Then his face split into a wide smile at the sight of Opal.

"Sis! You're just in time to see me catch a Pokémon!" Michael said, bouncing on his heels happily.

Opal shook her head, half-smiling at her younger brother. "And exactly _how_ do you intend to catch _my _Zubat?" She asked.

"I'm gonna…Huh? _Your_ Zubat? Is it yours?" Michael stared at her, his eyes demanding an answer. Opal nodded slowly, and the smile dropped from her brother's face.

"Damn it…"

"You tried, Little Bro. Just pay a little more attention next time, and make sure there aren't any people around who might own the Pokémon before you attack it and try and catch it, okay?" Opal told him quickly, ignoring the snicker – she suspected it was Knight – from behind her.

"Anyway, what are you doing here?" She changed the subject before anything else could be said about it, and called Fangs back to his Pokéball.

"Oh, I'm on my way to Vermillion City." The smile was back in full force, but Opal noticed a cheeky twinkle in his eyes that made her a little wary. It was always a warning that he'd done something he probably shouldn't have.

"Please tell me you aren't lost too…" Opal deadpanned.

"Nah," Michael dug around in his pockets, and pulled out a blue and red object, which he held up proudly, "I've been using the GPS thingy in your PokéGear." He announced.

Opal stared down and her brother for a moment, and then frowned at him.

"…I was _wondering_ where that had gone…" Opal mumbled, snatching it from her brother's hand. She ignored his cry of protest and attempts to get it back, and flipped it open.

She frowned at the Pokémon League Background on the main screen, and fiddled with it briefly to change it to the Dojo Background she'd had it set at, before opening the map.

She stared at the map for a moment before spinning on her heel, and walking off through the bushes. She heard Luke scramble after her, and two more sets of footsteps that indicated that both Knight and Michael were following her as well, but she didn't look back.

* * *

"I'm gonna kill him."

"Opal, please calm down!"

"No, I'm going to do worse than kill him. Killing him would be an act of mercy. I'm going to make him _suffer_ for this!"

"Sis, don't go crazy!"

"_I'm not going crazy, and i won't calm down! Not until that bastard pays for this!"_

"Someone has anger issues…"

"_I do not have anger issues!"_


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry this took so long to publish - i got a bit distracted because of Christmas.**

**Finally got around to finishing this chapter, though.  
**

**Enjoy, and let me know what you think.**

* * *

Opal was sitting at a table in the Rocket HQ's Cafeteria with her face planted firmly against the tabletop.

All over the table were papers, covered in handwriting varying in neatness, size, and formality.

There was a range of different things on the papers; there were mission reports that needed to be sorted, equipment requests to be confirmed, mission requests that needed to be delivered, a message from the Science Department that made no sense to her after what appeared to be a request for funding for some experiment, and a long rant from the Agent in charge of the training rooms that had _nothing _to do with _anything_ she was working on.

And then there'd been that small note hidden between a mission request and the equipment request that had been filled out for it, which had read "call me if you need a good time, babe", with a winking smiley-face and a phone number underneath it. Unfortunately for the fool who'd put the piece of paper in with the requests, Opal had been at the peak of her irritation at the time she'd found that, and she'd promptly called the number, torn into the poor soul on the other end of the line without bothering to keep her cursing down to a minimum – despite being in the cafeteria where _everyone _in the room could hear her – then threatened to cut his balls off with a rusty scalpel should she _ever_ find out who he was, and then 'hung up' the phone by throwing against the nearest wall.

Said phone was broken now, but she still had her PokéGear, which she'd kept after taking it from her brother, so she didn't mind much.

"I need a break…" she grumbled, stretching her arms out across the table. She didn't care that a few papers fluttered to the floor.

"Want some more coffee, Opal?" Luke's voice asked. She could hear paper rustling, meaning he was probably picking up the papers she'd knocked onto the floor.

When she and Luke returned from Vermillion City a week ago, with Knight in tow and Proton's slow and painful murder on Opal's mind, they discovered that something had happened while they'd been gone. Opal had been put onto Paperwork Duty – she had a feeling that it had something to do with her quickly-noticed habit of breaking things most people _couldn't_ break as easily as she could – and she'd promptly made Luke her messenger – for his sake as well as her own.

She'd seen Knight only once since returning the Celadon, with an Ekans following her despite the "no Pokémon in the halls" rule that had been put into place when several grunts started battling near the Science Department after a heated argument. From what she'd heard, Knight had been amongst a group of new recruits taken for a mission three days ago with the red-haired, female she'd seen the day she'd threatened to emasculate Proton.

She felt sorry for Knight; according to some of the other members, half those new recruits probably wouldn't be coming back. She could only hope that Knight would – she'd survived literally dropping into a bunch of Primeapes, after all.

"What I want, Luke, is _sleep_. I haven't slept for three days. I don't think I can manage any more of this without at least an _hour_ of sleep…" Opal responded, somehow keeping her voice calm despite her irritation.

"If you give up so easily, you're not going to get anywhere." She didn't recognise the voice, but from the way Luke abruptly sucked in a breath, and his foot – which he'd been tapping on the floor – suddenly stopped, she could tell that it was someone who was of a higher position than they were, and therefore was meant to be respected.

Not that Opal gave a damn about respecting higher-ups right now.

"Right now, I don't care about getting anywhere. I want to _sleep_." She snapped, not looking up from the table. She was quite comfortable where she was after all – her stretched-out arms were blocking out all the light.

"You're irritable today, aren't you?" The voice asked. It sounded amused.

"I haven't slept in three days, and have been surviving on coffee this whole time. I have a right to be irritable, _thank you very much._" She replied, frowning as Luke started poking her arm. She brushed his hand away.

"Three days isn't _that_ much. I haven't slept in a week." Opal felt a jolt in the bench she was sitting on as someone sat down next to her.

"You must be used to it, then." She heard a snicker next to her, and then Luke's poking started again, more insistent that before. She frowned in irritation, and finally lifted her head.

"_What_, Luke?" She snapped, a little more forcefully than she'd intended. He hesitated for a second, and then pointed to her left.

Her frown deepened, and she looked to her left, wondering what could be so important that he was poking so insistently. Then she lifted an eyebrow at the man sitting beside her.

At first glance, he didn't seem like anything special. But that was probably due to the way he was leaning casually – almost _lazily_ – against the table, grinning nonchalantly. But on a second, closer inspection, she noticed that his uniform was not that of any minor member of Team Rocket. It was slightly different, with two yellow streaks running up his shirt. He had purple hair and a purple goatee, and Opal suddenly realised she'd seen him before.

"I've seen you before." She stated simply.

"Yup, when you threatened to emasculate Proton. I was impressed by you then, by the way. Not many people threaten or attack Proton like that and live." The purple-haired man replied.

"I'm always going to be linked to that, aren't I?" She asked, glaring at the mention of the green-haired bastard upon whom she was _going_ to get revenge for the fake mission he'd sent her off on the previous week.

"You're always going to be linked to surviving Proton's legendary wrath, that's for sure. Give it a couple more weeks, and the story of you threatening to emasculate him will have morphed into you doing something completely different, and will probably continue to do so for as long as you remain in Team Rocket." She shook her head at the response, and gave it a minute to process in her head.

"I can't _wait_ to hear what it changes into…" she grumbled, planting her face back into the desk. She growled at the pat on her back, but did nothing to stop it.

"I've already put a bet on it changing into something along the lines of you doing more than just _threatening_ to emasculate him." The purple-haired man's voice was nonchalant and amused. "Of course, that will put you on the bad side of a lot of the ladies here if they believe it; Proton's pretty popular."

"Oh, joy, more things to deal with. I've already got Proton sending me on fake missions, and random women glaring at me when they think I can't see them, simply because I _threatened_ him. I can't _wait_ to see what happens if they think I actually went through with the threat…" Opal grumbled, frowning down at the table.

For a moment, the purple-haired man didn't speak, and in that time, she heard rapid footsteps approach, paper hitting the table, and then the footsteps retreating again, just as rapidly. Opal frowned and glanced up, to glare at the neat new stack of papers on the table.

"You know, you're the first person in I've met in a while that doesn't say "Executive" before referring to one, or use "Sir" when talking to me." Opal turned her attention to the purple-haired man, who was grinning down at her.

"That's because I don't care if an executive is an executive, or if you're higher in rank than me; I'll talk to you how I want to talk to you, and if you don't like it, you can go to hell. I'm not about to change my ways for one or two people." Opal responded.

"You know, I knew there was a reason I liked you." the purple-haired man smirked.

"Watch it, or I'll emasculate _you_ with a rusty scalpel." Opal responded instantly, frowning at the man.

"Petrel, isn't there something you should be doing?" Right as the purple-haired man was about to respond to her threat, another voice, which had Opal shooting upright so fast the world spun, interrupted.

Opal whipped around in her seat – causing the world to spin dizzyingly again – to snarl at the owner of the voice – Proton – but he was already gone. There was a snort and groan beside her, and then she spotted Petrel getting to his feet.

"See ya." Were the parting words she got before Petrel walked away.

Opal frowned, and was, for a moment, silent.

Then, "Luke?"

"Yes, Opal?"

"I'll take that coffee now."

* * *

**Not particularly happy with the end of this one.  
Oh well - Fun stuff happens next chapter to make up for it. **

**(****NOTE: next few chapters will mostly be filler-type chapters, until i remember what my original idea was.) R&R!**


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